Hi Unregistered, the PSB Server is beginning to receive a lot of bounceback's and undeliverable emails associated with thread updates/subscriptions, personal message notifications etc. It would be appreciated if you could check the email address linked to your profile, and update it where necessary.

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Hi All, Could you please take the time to check and update the email address associated with your account, we are seeing a number of bounces for active members.
Nath.

Why not just put everybody on Mod approval for every post, change the forum skin to beige and be done with it?

You've got a very broad membership on PSB and with it comes a very broad value and opinion base. Couple that with the fact that there are those members who are bleeding hearts and social crusaders and then there are those whom have a slightly more macabre outlook on life. And they sometimes post in the same threads. That's always going to lead to friction, it's life. It's what being an adult is all about.

The problem with forum moderation is more often than not, the context of what is being said is not ( or cannot be ) accounted for. This is particularly true if humor is involved. I find racism, sexism and plenty of other socially unacceptable isms hilarious. Not because I hate any particular group for being what they are but partly because the notion of hating upon that sole basis is hysterically absurd to me. There are way better reasons to hate people. But mostly I find it amusing just how much power people have let mere words, idle chit chat and non-relevant opinions have over them.

In the cases of perceived racism, sexism, homophobia and to a far lesser extent (for some inexplicable reason) theological vilification how will the mods decide on what are valid perceptual, philosophical, cultural (or other -ual) influenced differences in opinion and what is a universe shattering, time ending, nasty name calling, playground spat? This isn't a rhetorical question, I think we all really need to know. Otherwise, any conversations between Alice the Jewish lesbian and Bob the fundamentalist Sunni are quite likely going to be ban-stick bait and banning or censoring that discourse could logically and rightly be perceived under the moderation rationale as racist, sexist, homophobic and religious bigotry.

Would it not be easier, simpler and more beneficial to the development of social immunity skills to simply use the "ignore" functions if somebody saying stuff you don't like is breaking your bones? The last decade of this same crap obviously hasn't prevented the complaints from members from still coming in, though it has certainly had an effect on the creativity and memorability of the threads.

You do see the "lower the speed limit" analogy that this approach has, yeah?

I suspect the lack of moderation being required lately is due to the user-base finding a bit of equilibrium (by that, i mean knowing what is ok, and when the regulars are taking the piss to be funny rather than to be a dick) after the mass influx of new users a few years ago, and some of the career trolls either moving on to other things or growing up.

After some deliberation and feedback from our member base, we have decided to adjust the way moderators and staff address issues in posts.

From now on, if you post contrary to PSB's terms of use (eg racism, abusive, etc) you will receive either a 24 hr posting ban (mod approve) or a complete 24 hr ban from PSB altogether. No warnings, no sliding scale.

All users will be addressed the same ad infracted the same. No bias, no favourtism, nothing. The same action will result in the same reaction across the board.

However if the mods feel that a certain user is not learning or adjusting their posting to fit into PSB, deliberately posting to inflame or bragging about their infractions, then staff will review the user to see if further action is warranted.

We want you to self moderate. We want the fun times of PSB to return. Not the spiteful, antagonistic attitude that is prevalent at the moment. We are removing the possibility for bias or confusion over different infraction levels or lengths to help balance moderating out and put the emphasis back on users self moderating

This isn't directed at any one person, it's only in response to opinion I've seen expressed many times.

PSB is a social structure, creating a name and a password doesn't entitle you to equal say. If I'm out with a group of my long term friends and some bloke walks up to try and start something with one of us, do you think I'd be saying to my friends "hey guys, it's okay because he's a person too and his opinion is valid"? Fuck no. And if I want to call one of my mates a princess because he's being soft, I will. If some random wants to have a go at me for calling him names I'd expect all of my group to tell him where to go, then address me privately later on if they didn't agree with my actions.

There are other forums created by people who couldn't fit in to PSB. They're boring, safe forums, I visited and left quickly because they were too touchy-feely and contrived. I like a place where people can say "cunt" in a way that's not abusive and get away with it.

Deleting the thread for sick jokes was a 2012 decision, not the only PC step I saw implemented. Don't let PSB become a homogenous product for all to safely enjoy.

Compared to a couple of US forums I'm on this place is way over moderated especially in the Pub or general conversation areas
Technical threads, F/S and build threads are lightly moderated but the general opinion is unless it's outright threats or constant abuse then get over it or get outa the Kitchen
FFS we can't even get into the Kitchen here

Taking the piss out of mates is an Australian institution and it is not a difficult thing to do face to face with a smile causing no offence to anyone.
Same with taking the piss out of other races, the Kiwis, Aussies, Poms, Scots Irish and god forbid even the Welsh have been doing it for years.
Doing it via the interwebz takes a little more thought as it can easily be misconstrued as a personal attack.
A little smiley goes a long way.
If the day comes when taking the piss in a good natured way is outlawed, then we are truly fucked as a multi cultural society.